Welcome to the Primary Care Learning Organisation Toolkit

This Toolkit sets out the new approval process, procedure and documents for Learning Organisations, in accordance with the HEE Quality Framework.  

Historically approval to host trainees or students was granted to practices and their supervisors by multiple organisations e.g., Approved Education Institutions (AEI’s), Health Education England (HEE), School of Primary Care. In the future, approval will be given to a Learning Organisation, ideally based on a Primary Care Network (PCN) footprint. The aim is to approve Learning Organisations as sites for multidisciplinary learners, it streamlines and reduces the number of reapproval visits and audits required and highlights how you meet the HEE Quality Framework.  

Supervisors will be accredited by their individual professional organisations e.g. The GP School for GP clinical and educational supervisors.  

To gain approval to host learners Learning Organisations must evidence achievement of the required standards within the HEE Quality Framework at the point of application. This will be subsequently monitored through the review process.   

This process supports the Training Hub Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) covering 'expanding and managing innovative and high-quality learning environments'.  

The approval process for Learning Organisations moves away from individual GP practices making an application for a single learner group and instead looks at approving a Learning Organisation consisting of multiple sites (likely a PCN footprint) and multiple learner types. We hope this approach will streamline the process for practices and allow data from more learners to feed into quality assessments leading to quality improvements.  

The aim is to have a single process for initial and on-going quality monitoring that will meet the requirements of multiple regulatory bodies and/or Approved Education Institutions (AEI’s). 

A Learning Environment in this process refers to an individual site within a Learning Organisation (e.g., an individual GP practice)  

The applicant refers to the Learning Organisation who are submitting for approval.  

In order for a learner from any professional group to be hosted, the applicant must demonstrate they have both the governance and infrastructure in place to provide a safe, high quality learner experience. These requirements extend beyond the approved educator role and encompasses how other members of the host team, e.g., Practice Manager, Receptionists, Medical Secretaries and other multi-professionals and clinicians within the Learning Organisation contribute to supporting both the educator and learner.  

The Learning Organisation must be able to demonstrate their knowledge of; and how they will meet, learner contract requirements i.e., working time directives, sick and study leave etc and how they will meet the learner specific requirements in terms of clinical and educational supervision.   

The application process begins by the completion of the Learning Organisation application form by the prospective Learning Organisation. The application form prompts the applicant to demonstrate how they meet the quality and safety requirements, for all learners, in addition to gathering high level data about external quality assurances e.g., CQC assessment outcomes.  

The completed application form should be sent to your local Training Hub Quality Administrator who will check the form is completed accurately and with appropriate linked evidence. Any gaps in information will be requested from the prospective Learning Organisation before formal assessment can take place.   

A Quality information pack will then be produced by the NHS England Quality Assurance Group for Primary Care Learning Organisations.  

Training Hub’s will convene a multi-disciplinary panel to review the application form, submitted evidence, other Quality information. An approval panel visit of the Learning Organisation is then arranged to explore key areas of interest and determine a recommendation to submit to the NHS England Quality Assurance Group for Primary Care Learning Organisations.  

The panel must have appropriate administration support and be comprised of:   

This meeting is likely to be held remotely on Teams due to panel availability, however, it can also be in person or a hybrid approach. 

During the visit the approval panel will explore opportunities for further expansion of training placements with the Learning Organisation.   

The Training Hub Quality Lead with the Training Hub admin support will complete the relevant sections on the Learning Organisation Application Form clearly stating their recommendation and any concerns and submit to the NHS England Quality Assurance Group for Primary Care Learning Organisation for formal review at england.traininghubquality.sw@nhs.net. 

The visit/review may identify areas for improvement. These will be clearly recorded and reported back to the Learning Organisation with an action owner and timeframe for completion.  

If any concerns are identified in the Learning Environment these will be managed by the usual processes as outlined in the Quality Framework, please see our escalating concerns page. 

Following the approval, each Learning Organisation will be expected to complete an annual return.  

Once a Learning Organisation has undergone the initial Learning Organisation Approval process they need to engage in the Annual Return Process. This process is designed to be a single annual process and will replace multiple audits for differing learner groups and compliments the completion of normal Quality processes. 

The completed return will be shared with the relevant Approved Education Institutions/Universities (AEI) including medical schools and the School of Primary Care.

The Annual Return should be completed by all Learning Organisations who were approved by the Quality Assurance Group for Primary Care Learning Organisations prior to 1^st August.